Contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for reversing a vessel accommodating the contents to be filled into a packaging container from a upright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby dropping downward and filling the contents into a container disposed underneath. A vessel is held at one end of a vessel holding member that is rotated around an axis. The axis is situated at a position higher than the center in the vertical direction of the vessel supplied to the gripping stop position where the vessel is gripped in a upright state by the holding member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a contents-filling vessel reversingapparatus for use in a bag packaging machine, namely an apparatus forreversing a vessel accommodating contents to be filled into a containersuch as, for example, a packaging bag. More specifically, the presentinvention relates to a contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus forreversing a vessel accommodating contents to be filled into a containerfrom a upright state to an inverted state, thereby dropping downward andfilling the contents into a packaging container disposed underneath,when foods or the like are packaged in the packaging container.

2. Prior Art

In the automatic packaging of foods and the like, filling of contents isusually carried out as follows, namely, vessels accommodating apredetermined amount of contents such as foods or the like to be filledin a packaging container are successively supplied in a upright state,this vessel in the upright state is held by a holding device and theholding device is rotated in a vertical plane around a predeterminedcenter of rotation to reverse the vessel into an inverted state, therebydropping downward and filling the contents into a packaging containerdisposed underneath. An example of this kind of the apparatus forreversing a vessel is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Non-examinedPatent Application No. 8-282602.

With the reversing apparatus disclosed in this publication, a vessel inan upright state is supplied to a vessel accommodation part of thereversing device, this reversing device is rotated 180 degrees around arotating shaft to reverse the vessel, and the reversing device is oncestopped at this position to drop the vessel downward. The vesselcollides with and received by a vessel receiving table disposed below,thereby ejecting downwardly the contents accommodated in it.

One of alternatives to the arrangement mentioned above is to grip thevessel on the outer circumference thereof or the upper/lower endsthereof by a pair of gripping members capable of approaching to andseparating away from each other.

In either case, a vessel is reversed by rotating the holding members orgripping members around an axis. For ejecting the contents from avessel, most of the apparatuses or devices in the prior art comprisesarrangements similar to the arrangements disclosed in JapaneseNon-examined Patent Application No. 8-282602 where a vessel isdischarged and collides with a stopper to eject the contents by makinguse of the impact caused. There are also some cases where a vessel isnot discharged when the holding member is rotated 180 degrees andstopped, while the contents are ejected from the vessel due to a shockcaused at the stopping. Even in these cases, the vessel is droppeddownwardly after ejection of the contents and stopped and received by astopper for collection.

In the meantime, with a reversing apparatus of this kind, there is asubject of how to set the rotating speed of the holding members or thelike used therein. In other words, if the rotating speed is low, thecontents in the vessel may run out when the vessel is tilted to aposition where the mouth thereof faces obliquely and downwardly duringthe rotation. This phenomenon may be caused easily especially with solidmaterials so-called bulky substances and becomes remarkable as theamount of the contents to be filled increases. If the rotating speed isincreased in order to prevent this problem and to improve workefficiency, the contents accommodated in the vessel may fly out from thevessel at an undesired position during the rotation in the tangentialdirection of the rotary trajectory due to increased centrifugal force.

Other disadvantages attributable to high-speeding have also been found.Namely, if the rotating speed is increased, an impact caused bycollision of the vessel with the stopper becomes great, accordinglyresulting in chipping of the vessel and in mixing of fragments into thepackaging container. The noise problem due to collision is also serious.

According to Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2539246, a vesselis held on the outer end of an arm and the arm is stopped suddenly whenrotated 180 degrees, thereby discharging the contents from the vesseldue to inertia force. If the contents to be filled are solid matters,however, the same problems as experienced with the apparatus disclosedin Japanese Non-examined Patent Application No. 8-282602 referred toabove will arise. In addition, if a higher speed is employed forcontents to be filled with a higher viscosity, they will not dropdirectly underneath when the arm is stopped, but there is a tendencythat they are discharged in a direction along with the rotary trajectoryof the arm, which results in the problems that the contents to be filledare adhered to the side wall of a guide.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is made in light of the problems with the priorart as mentioned above. An object of the present invention is to presenta contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus by which processingcapability can be improved without causing flying out of contents from avessel even if the rotating speed of the holding member is increased.

It is also another object of the present invention to solve the problemssuch as chipping of the vessels and noise generation resulting fromhigh-speeding as seen in the prior art by adopting arrangements forejecting contents from the vessel without causing a collision of thevessel directly with a stopper.

Among the problems seen in the conventional apparatuses; regarding theproblem of flying out of contents from the vessel, the inventors of thepresent invention paid attention to the fact that, in the conventionalapparatuses, the center of rotation of the vessel gripping members isset to the same height as that of the center of a vessel located at theholding position, and found that this could be resolved by setting thecenter of rotation of the vessel gripping members at a height higherthan the center position of the vessel located at the holding position.It has also been found out that it is possible to solve the problems ofchipping of the vessels and noise generation by handing a vessel over toa vessel carrying-out apparatus on the way of a process when the holdingmember is returning back to the original position for receiving a nextvessel without dropping the vessel at the position where the vessel isreversed.

More specifically, in order to solve the problems and to accomplish theobjects mentioned above, the present invention presents acontents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for reversing acontents-filling vessel accommodating contents to be filled from anupright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby dropping downward andfilling the contents into a packaging container disposed underneath,said apparatus comprising

-   -   a vessel holding member for holding said vessel supplied to a        holding position, said vessel holding member being designed to        rotate in a vertical plane around a center of rotation,    -   wherein the position of said center of rotation is set higher        than the position of the center in the vertical direction of        said vessel positioned at said holding position.

With these features, the centrifugal force acting on the vessel or thecontents in the vessel during the reversing operation is directedobliquely backward with regard to the direction of movement of thevessel, and acts to force the contents toward the bottom of the vessel,thereby preventing the contents from flying out from the vessel.Therefore, even contents with low adhesion, namely so-called bulkysubstance, can be dealt with at a high rotational speed at whichcontents could fly out when the conventional apparatus mentioned aboveis used. If desired, further high-speeding is possible.

According to another embodiment of the invention, said holding membercomprises a pair of gripping members attached to the rotating device andbeing capable of approaching to and separating away from each other togrip and to release said vessel, and

-   -   said apparatus further comprises:    -   a reversing device including a rotating device equipped with a        main rotating member rotatable around said center of rotation,        said rotating device rotating intermittently the main rotating        member in one direction and stopping the main rotating member at        a first and a second positions, and said gripping members        attached to said rotating device, said gripping members being        designed to stop at a gripping stop position where said gripping        members can grip a vessel supplied in said upright state when        said main rotating member stops at the first stop position, and        to stop at a reversal stop position where said vessel is held in        said nearly inverted state when said main rotating member stops        at the second position;    -   a reversal stop position regulating device for regulating said        reversal stop position of said gripping members;    -   an empty vessel carrying-out device provided at an empty vessel        discharging position on the way along which said gripping        members return from said reversal stop position to said gripping        stop position, said empty vessel carrying-out device receiving        an empty vessel from which the contents to be filled have been        ejected and transferring it to downstream process; and    -   a gripping member opening/closing apparatus for making said        gripping members close to grip a vessel at said gripping stop        position and for making said gripping members open at said empty        vessel discharging position, thereby discharging the empty        vessel towards said empty vessel carrying-out device.

In the apparatus with the compositions mentioned above, the grippingmembers grip a vessel and rotate, and when the gripping members stop atthe reversal stop position, the vessel is in a reversed state andstopped, thereby discharging the contents in the vessel due to theinertia force. The empty vessel is still griped by the gripping memberseven after it is reversed and the contents is discharged, and isreleased towards the vessel carrying-out device on the way returning tothe gripping stop position. Therefore, there is no direct collision of avessel with a stopper plate as observed in the prior art and problems ofchipping of vessels, entry of foreign matters into a packaging containerand deterioration of working environments do not occur.

Further, the reversal stop position can be regulated to any desiredposition by the reversal stop position regulating device and, therefore,it is possible to regulate the reversal stop position according toproperties and amount of the contents to be filled, processing rate orthe like to ensure accurate dropping of the contents into a packagingcontainer disposed directly underneath.

According to another embodiment, the main rotating member comprises amain rotating shaft rotating intermittently in one direction every 180degrees, and the rotating device further comprises a supporting shaftsupported by the main rotating shaft in parallel to the main rotatingshaft in an axial direction and designed to be reciprocally rotatablearound an axis thereof between an initial position and a rotatedposition. The contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus furthercomprises a supporting shaft rotating device for rotating the supportingshaft. The reversing stop position regulating device regulates therotated position of the supporting shaft, and the pair of grippingmembers are mounted on one end of the supporting shaft.

With these compositions mentioned above, the supporting shaft rotatingdevice is designed to change the relative position of the supportingshaft to the main rotating shaft in the direction of rotation by turningthe supporting shaft. Therefore, even when two sets of gripping membersare provided and these are rotated intermittently every 180 degrees bythe reversing device, it is possible to change the reversal stopposition while the gripping stop position is fixed.

As noted, the supporting shaft is rotated during the reversal operation.By setting appropriately the way of rotating of the supporting shaft,for example by not tilting the vessel greatly at the earlier stage ofreversal and tilting the vessel rapidly and greatly at the last endstage of reversal, depending on type, properties, and amount of contentsto be filled, it is possible to prevent the contents from flying outfrom the vessel at an stage earlier than desired.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the supportingshaft is formed to be hollow, and the gripping member opening/closingdevice comprises a sliding shaft inserted into the hollow section of thesupporting shaft and movable in the axial direction. The sliding shaftis connected at one end to the gripping members, and the grippingmembers are opened and closed interlockingly with the axial directionmovement of the sliding shaft.

According to the composition mentioned above where a sliding shaft isdisposed within a supporting shaft, peripheral arrangement of thereversal mechanism of the apparatus can be made compact, and ease ofcleaning is improved.

According to another embodiment, the supporting shaft rotating device isequipped with a grooved cam securely positioned with an axis thereofcoinciding with the axis of said main rotating shaft, a lever fixed tothe other end of said supporting shaft and a cam roller mounted on thelever so as to roll in and move along a groove formed in the groovedcam. Further, in a predetermined range in the groove extending in theopposite directions from a position corresponding to the rotatedposition of the supporting shaft, at least a radius of curvature of aninner wall of said groove is made shorter than a radius of curvature ofthe inner wall in a rest range in the groove so that a width of thegroove in said predetermined range is larger than a width of the groovein the rest range. Still further, the reversal stop regulating device isprovided with a positioning stopper which abuts against the lever toposition the lever at the reversal stop position, and a stopper positionregulating device for regulating the position of the stopper.

According to the compositions mentioned above, it is possible to changethe reversal stop position only by adjusting the position of thestopper, and the gripping stop position is unchanged even when thereversal stop position is changed. Therefore, the adjustment can be doneeasily.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, twosupporting shafts are provided symmetrically with respect to the axis ofthe main rotating shaft, and each of the supporting shafts is providedwith a pair of the gripping members. Therefore it is possible to improveprocessing capability of the apparatus.

As noted above, according to the present invention, even in the case thecontents to be filled are ones with low adhesion, namely so-called bulkysubstance, it is possible to prevent the contents from flying out fromthe vessel during rotation even when rotated at a high rotational speed,thereby improving processing capability. With the conventional artmentioned above, when dealing with relatively large amount of bulkycontents, spilling out or flying out of the contents happens at anyrotational speed and therefore, complete filling is not possible.According to the present invention, however, filling of such a largeamount of bulky contents can be done surely. Besides, chipping of thevessel in use can be prevented, thereby preventing entry of foreignmatters into the packaging container, and noise generation can bereduced, thereby contributing to improvement of working environments.Moreover, it is possible to drop, at the reversal position, contentssurely into a packaging container disposed underneath. Regulations forthis purpose can also be done easily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partly sectioned front view showing a apparatus forreversing a vessel accommodating contents to be filled according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a partly sectioned plan view thereof,

FIG. 3 is a partly sectioned right side view thereof,

FIG. 4 is a rear view showing the principal part of the apparatus,

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a stopper mechanism,

FIG. 6 is a right side view showing the principal part of the stoppermechanism, and

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing relationship between the height ofthe center of rotation of the vessel and the height of the center of thevessel.

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention will be explained hereinafter. FIG. 1 is a partly sectionedfront view showing a contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus 1(referred to simply as “apparatus” hereinafter) for reversing acontents-filling vessel (referred to simply as “vessel” hereinafter)accommodating contents to be filled according to a preferred embodimentof the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view, FIG. 3 is apartly sectioned side view, and FIG. 4 is a rear view showing theprincipal part of the apparatus. According to the present embodiment,two sets of mechanisms for gripping and reversing a vessel Y areprovided as will be described hereinafter.

The apparatus 1 has a machinery mount 2. A stand 3 is erected on themachinery mount 2, and a frame 4 in a nearly box-shaped configuration issecured on the stand 3. Two vertical wall portions 5, 6 are formed inparallel with and separated from each other above and below at the lowerpart of the frame 4 as viewed in FIG. 2. The walls form supporting parts5, 6 for a main rotating shaft 7. The main rotating shaft 7 is supportedthrough bearings 8, 8 disposed at the opposite ends thereof. Two throughholes are formed through the shaft 7 at right and left symmetricalpositions with respect to the center of the main rotating shaft 7.Supporting shafts 9, 10 are inserted through the through holes,respectively, and are rotatably supported by bearings 11 disposed at theopposite ends of the main rotating shaft 7, respectively. (Forconvenience of explanation, one shown at the left in FIG. 2 is referredto as a first supporting shaft 9 while one shown at the right isreferred to as a second supporting shaft 10. When no discrimination isneeded or they are identified unmistakably, however, they are simplyreferred to as supporting shaft 9 or supporting shaft 10.) Thesupporting shafts 9, 10, and members associated therewith andconstructions thereof are identical. Therefore, the followingdescription mainly deals with the supporting shaft 9 and the associatedmembers only.

In the figures, the supporting shaft 9 and the associated members are ata gripping stop position capable of gripping a vessel Y, while thesupporting shaft 10 and the associated members are at a reversal stopposition, i.e. vessel Y is in a nearly inverted state. The vessel Yaccording to the present embodiment is a cylindrical vessel having abottom and is supplied successively by a supply conveyor 71 to theposition shown (see FIG. 1).

A through hole is formed through the supporting shaft 9, and a slidingshaft 12 is inserted through this through hole. Although the slidingshaft 12 is movable in the axial direction, no turning is possible. Oneend of the sliding shaft 12 (lower side in FIG. 2) is projected from thesupporting shaft 9, and a cylindrical part 14 formed at the base part ofa gripping member supporting block 13 is fitted on this projectingportion. The block 13 is fixed to an flange part 9 a formed at one endof the supporting shaft 9. The supporting block 13 is equipped with afork part 15, and a left gripping member 16 and a right gripping member17 which rotate together with supporting pins 16 a, 17 a, respectively,are mounted on the respective tip ends of the fork part 15.

A link linkage member 18 is securely mounted on the end of the slidingshaft 12 projecting from the cylindrical part 14 of the gripping membersupporting block 13. On the opposite side surface of the cylindricalpart 14, one end of a link 18 a is rotatably connected to the linklinkage member 18 (see the second supporting shaft 10 and the associatedmembers in FIG. 2.), and one end of connecting arm part 17 b of theright gripping member 17 is rotatably connected to the other end of thelink 18 a. An engagement pin 19 is fixed to stand on an engagement armpart 17 c of the right gripping member 17 extending in a directionnearly orthogonal to the connecting arm part 17 b, and an elongated hole16 c formed through a linking arm part 16 b of the left gripping member16 is fitted to this pin 19 so that a motion is transmitted between bothgripping members 16, 17.

A spring receiving part 12 a with an increased diameter is formed on thesliding shaft 12 at a portion inside of the cylindrical part 14 of thegripping member supporting block 13, and a compression spring 20 isdisposed between this receiving part 12 a and an inside end face of thecylindrical part 14 of the supporting block 13. Therefore, this springacts to urge the right and left gripping members 16, 17 in the closingdirection.

A roller 21 is attached to the opposite end of the sliding shaft 12through an attachment shaft 22. With regard to this roller 21, agripping member opening/closing cam 25 is disposed and securely mountedon the front end of a rod 24 a of an air cylinder 24 that is mounted onthe frame 4 through an attachment bracket 23. The opening/closing cam 25is in the shape of a nearly semicircle ring (see FIG. 4), and a facethereof facing the roller 21 comprises flat part 25 a and inclined part25 b. The inclined part 25 b inclines in a direction where it isgradually separated away more from the roller 21 as going towards theend thereof (see FIGS. 2 and 4, in this condition illustrated, theroller 21 associated with the first supporting shaft 9 is placed on theflat part 25 a and the roller 21 associated with the second supportingshaft 10 is disengaged from the cam 25).

When the main rotating shaft 7 is in the stationary state and the firstsupporting shaft 9 and the associated sliding shaft 12 are in theposition shown in FIG. 2, the air cylinder 24 is actuated to retract itsrod 24 a, the cam 25 is moved backwardly, and the gripping members 16,17 are closed, thereby gripping the vessel Y. The main rotating shaftthen starts to rotate (in the present embodiment, it rotates in theclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1 and in the counterclockwisedirection as viewed in FIG. 4). And when the roller 21 associated withthe first supporting shaft 9 is disengaged from the cam 25, the aircylinder 24 is actuated in the reverse direction, thereby returning thecam 25 to its original position. As will be described later, after themain rotating shaft 7 is stopped at the reversal stop position where thevessel Y is reversed (in the drawings, the second supporting shaft 10 isin this position), and when it resumes rotating in the same direction inorder to return to the gripping stop position, the roller 21 is restedon the inclined part 25 b of the cam 25 on the way of returning, andthen on the flat part 25 a, thereby opening again gripping members 16,17. This will be described again later.

Next, a mechanism for reversing the vessel Y will be described. Numeral31 denotes a motor mounted on the main rotating shaft supporting part 6of the frame 4 (see FIG. 2). An output shaft 32 of the motor 31 extendsthrough the supporting part 6, and a driving gear 33 located between thesupporting parts 5 and 6 is fixed to the front end thereof. This drivinggear 33 meshes with a driven gear 34 fixed to the main rotating shaft 7.According to the present embodiment, the motor 31 turns intermittentlyin the same direction to rotate the main rotating shaft 7 every 180degrees in the clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1 and in thecounterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 4. In this case, thesupporting shafts 9, 10 are also rotated in one around the center of themain rotating shaft 7. Therefore, the vessel Y gripped by the grippingmembers 16,17 attached to the supporting shafts 9,10 also rotate aroundthe axis of the main rotating shaft 7. As clearly illustrated in FIG. 1,the axis of the main rotating shaft 7, and, therefore, also the centerof rotation of the gripping members 16,17 is situated at a positionhigher than the center in the vertical direction of the vessel in theupright state supplied to the gripping stop position. This point will beexplained later again.

In FIG. 2, a cam lever 35 is fixedly secured at one end thereof to theend part of the supporting shafts 9 (10) projecting upwardly from themain rotating shaft 7 (see FIG. 4). A cam roller 36 is mounted on theother end of the lever 35. Corresponding to these cam rollers 36, agrooved cam 37 is fixed to the main rotating shaft supporting part 6. Agroove 38 is formed on the cam 37 and the cam roller 36 is fitted in androlls along the groove 38. The groove 38 is provided with a uniform part38 a where the inside and outside walls 39 and 40 of the groove 38 areconcentric with each other, having its center at the center of the mainrotating shaft 7. The width of the uniform part 38 a of the groove 38nearly corresponds to the diameter of the cam roller 36. The groove 38is also provided with an enlarged part 38 b with an increased width.Namely, the inside wall 39 has a concentric part 39 a, and adisplacement part 39 b where the radius of curvature is decreasedgradually and is increased gradually again as going in thecounterclockwise direction from the left upper part to the lower part inFIG. 4. Further, the outside wall 40 has a concentric part 40 a, and adisplacement part 40 b where the radius of curvature is increasedgradually and is decreased again at the upper part. Therefore, thesupporting shafts 9, 10 are unable to rotate as long as the cam roller36 is located in the uniform part 38 a while rotating is possible in theenlarged part 38 b.

In FIG. 4, corresponding to the end part of the cam lever 35 associatedwith the second supporting shaft 10 on which end part the cam roller 36is mounted, there is a stopper mechanism 45 for regulating the stopposition or the reversal position of the gripping members 16, 17 mountedon this cam lever 35 and, thus the position of the second supportingshaft 10.

In addition to FIG. 4, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, FIG. 5 is a plan viewshowing details of the stopper mechanism 45 and FIG. 6 is its right sideview. Numeral 46 denotes a rail of the stopper mechanism 45 that issecured to the main rotating shaft supporting part 6 of the frame 4. InFIGS. 4 and 5, a slide member 47 is mounted on the rail 46 to be movablein the lateral direction as viewed in FIGS. 4 and 5. A slide plate 48 isfixed integrally on the slide member 47, a stopper roller 50 is mountedon the left side end part of the slide plate 48 as viewed in FIG. 5 by asupporting shaft 49, and a contacting part 51 contacting a shockabsorber 52 (which will be described later) is provided on the slideplate 48 to stand on the right side of the roller 50. Responding to thecontacting part 51, the shock absorber 52 is mounted on the mainrotating shaft supporting part 6 through a bracket 54. The contactingpart 51 of the slide plate 48 is provided to contact with a contactingshaft 53 of the shock absorber 52. The position of this shock absorber52 is adjustable in the axial direction of the contacting shaft 53.

When the main rotating shaft 7 starts to rotate from the state shown inFIG. 1, etc., the first supporting shaft 9 is unable to rotate aroundits axis during an early stage, since the cam roller 36 on the cam lever35 attached to the shat 9 moves along and rolls in such a portion wherethe width of the groove 38 of the cam 37 is uniform, and the shaft 9simply rotates or does a revolution around the axis of the main rotatingshaft 7 integrally with the main rotating shaft 7. When the cam roller36 comes to the displacement part 40 b of the outside wall 40 of thegroove 38 and further to the displacement part 39 b of the inside wall,the width of the groove 38 becomes greater than the diameter of the camroller 36. In this occasion, due to a load exerted to the supportingshaft 9, the cam roller 36 moves in such a manner that the cam roller 36rolls on the inside wall 39 b, and the cam lever 35 and the supportingshaft 9 rotate around the axis of the supporting shaft 9 in theclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 4. In other words, the cam lever35 and the gripping members 16, 17 attached to the lever 35 rotatearound the axis os the main shaft 7 in a slightly delayed state withregard to the main rotating shaft 7.

When the main rotating shaft 7 is turned 180 degrees and is stopped, thecam lever 35 and the supporting shaft 9 now rotate counterclockwisearound the axis of the supporting shaft 9, since the gripping members16, 17 continue their motion due to the inertia force. The end part ofthe cam lever 35 on which the cam roller 36 is mounted collides with thestopper roller 50 described previously, and the cam lever 35, and thusthe supporting shaft 9 also stop while the impact is being absorbed bythe shock absorber 52. In FIGS. 1 to 4, the second supporting shaft 10and the associated members are corresponding to this state. On thisoccasion, the vessel Y stops suddenly in a nearly reversed state asshown in FIG. 1, thereby discharging the contents accommodated in itinto a guide cylinder 56 located underneath. As illustrated, the vesselY is not in a completely inverted state. This is because considerationsare given to the direction along which the contents in the vessel Y aredischarged at the sudden stop of the vessel Y, which considerations aredealt with in the description of the prior art mentioned above. Thedirection of discharging can be set in the optimum state by regulatingthe final stop position of gripping members 16, 17, i.e., the reversalstop position, by regulating the position of the shock absorber 52 ofthe stopper mechanism 45 described previously.

Next, the main rotating shaft 7 again resumes rotating in the samedirection at a predetermined timing, and the second supporting shaft 10positioned at the reversal stop position in the figures starts returningmovement to the gripping stop position described previously where thefirst supporting shaft 9 exists in the figures. As the main rotatingshaft 7 rotates, the supporting shaft 10 rotates together with the mainrotating shaft 7 in such a manner that the cam lever 35 presses theshock absorber 52 through the stopper roller 50, and the cam lever 35 isdisengaged from the stopper roller 50. When the cam roller 36 rolls onand moves along such a portion where the radius of curvature of thedisplacement part 39 b of the inside wall 39 of the groove 38 becomesgreater gradually, the supporting shaft 10 rotates by a predeterminedangle in the direction opposite to the previous one, and the positionalrelationship between the supporting shaft 10 and the main rotating shaft7 is restored to the original state.

Meanwhile, when the main rotating shaft 7 rotates in this returningprocess, the roller 21 attached to the sliding shaft 12 describedpreviously rests on the inclined part 25 b of the gripping memberopening/closing cam 25 also described previously, and then rides on theflat part 25 a at a predetermined turning position to open the grippingmembers 16, 17, thereby discharging the vessel Y having being grippedtill then. This is the vessel discharging position, at which a vesselcarrying-out apparatus 61 is disposed for receiving emptied vessels andtransferring them to downstream process (see FIGS. 1, 3). The operationsof discharging the vessel Y are carried out while the main rotatingshaft 7 continues rotating.

The vessel carrying-out apparatus 61 is equipped with an empty vesselcollection conveyor 62, and a vessel collection guide 63 is mounted onthe stand 3 by a bracket 64. The guide 63 extends between a receivingside end of the conveyor 62 and a cutout 56 a formed through the guidecylinder 56. The vessel Y being griped by the gripping members 16, 17can pass through the cutout 56 a. The gripping members 16, 17 open, andthe empty vessel Y discharged and received on the empty vesselcollection guide 63 moves onto the conveyor 62 and is transferred todownstream process while being guided by guide bars 65. The mainrotating shaft 7 continues rotating, and stops after rotated by 180degrees, while the gripping members 16, 17 return to the gripping stopposition in the opened state.

Referring to FIG. 7, detailed explanation will be given regarding thearrangement where the axis of the main rotating shaft is situated at aposition higher than the center of a vessel in the upright statesupplied to the gripping stop position. In FIG. 7, symbols O and O′respectively denote the center of rotation of the gripping members 16,17employed in the present invention and the center of rotation of thegripping members 16,17 employed in the conventional reversing apparatuswith respect to the vessel Y supplied to the same gripping stopposition. The figure shows the manner of the rotation of the vessel Y inthe present invention which is shown by solid lines and of the vessel Y′in the conventional apparatus which is shown by double dashed chainlines. Centrifugal force acting in each case is indicated by arrows Vand V′, respectively.

As it is apparent from FIG. 7, in the conventional case, when vessel Y′is rotated, the direction of centrifugal force V′ acting on vessel Y′,i.e., on the contents inside, is orthogonal to the direction of movementof the vessel Y′. In contrast, in the embodiment of the presentinvention, it is oriented obliquely backward with regard to thedirection of movement of the vessel Y In other words, the centrifugalforce V generated in the present invention acts to force the contents inthe vessel Y toward the part of the cylindrical side wall of the vesselfarther from the center of rotation of the vessel Y and, therefore actsto force the contents toward the bottom of the vessel Y Namely, thecontents in the vessel Y are forced in the direction opposite to thedirection of the movement of the vessel Y, thereby preventing thecontents from flying out from the vessel Y during rotating. When thecenter of rotation of the main rotating shaft 7 is situated at aposition higher than that shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the direction ofaction of the centrifugal force V is tilted further to the left in FIG.7, thereby enhancing tendency of forcing the contents toward the bottomof the vessel Y.

In the embodiment mentioned above, the gripping members 16, 17 whichgrip the vessel on the outer circumference thereof in cooperation areused as a holding member for folding the vessel Y. Alternatively,however, these members may be such a type of gripping members that gripthe vessel on the upper and lower ends thereof. Further, this is notlimited to the embodiment where a pair of gripping members are used,and, for example, a reversing apparatus (holding member) disclosed inJapanese Non-examined Patent Application No. 8-282602 given as anexample of conventional art may be used.

According to the present embodiment described above, it is designed thatthe rotating speed of the motor 31 changes with two steps mode duringone operation. In other words, since discharging an empty vessel Y attoo high speed may cause problems, a relatively low-speed is employed inthe stages before completion of discharging of the vessel, and then thespeed is shifted to a higher speed after discharging the vessel, therebyensuring reliable and thorough ejection of the contents accommodated inthe vessel Y at the reversal stop position.

Although, according to the embodiment described above, two supportingshafts are provided and two sets of gripping members are used for onemain rotating shaft, when one set of gripping members is used, thegripping members can be mounted directly on the main rotating shaft. Onthis occasion, a servo motor may be used as a driving motor forappropriately regulating the rotational angle from the gripping stopposition to the reversal stop position and the rotational angle in thereturning process from the reversal stop position to the gripping stopposition, so that the stopper mechanism used in the embodiment describedabove is unnecessary.

1. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus for reversing acontents-filling vessel accommodating contents to be filled from anupright state to a nearly inverted state, thereby dropping downward andfilling the contents into a packaging container disposed underneath,said apparatus comprising a vessel holding member for holding saidvessel supplied to a holding position, said vessel holding member beingdesigned to rotate in a vertical plane around a center of rotation, andwherein the position of said center of rotation is set higher than theposition of the center in the vertical direction of said vesselpositioned at said holding position.
 2. A contents-filling vesselreversing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said holding membercomprises a pair of gripping members capable of approaching to andseparating away from each other to grip and to release said vessel,wherein said apparatus further comprises: a reversing device including arotating device equipped with a main rotating member rotatable aroundsaid center of rotation, said rotating device rotating intermittentlythe main rotating member in one direction and stopping the main rotatingmember at a first and a second positions, and said gripping membersattached to said rotating device, said gripping members being designedto stop at a gripping stop position where said gripping members can gripa vessel supplied in said upright state when said main rotating memberstops at the first stop position, and to stop at a reversal stopposition where said vessel is held in said nearly inverted state whensaid main rotating member stops at the second positions; a reversal stopposition regulating device for regulating said reversal stop position ofsaid gripping members; an empty vessel carrying-out device provided atan empty vessel discharging position on the way along which saidgripping members return from said reversal stop position to saidgripping stop position, said empty vessel carrying-out device receivingan empty vessel from which the contents to be filled have been ejectedand transferring it to downstream process; and a gripping memberopening/closing apparatus for making said gripping members close to gripa vessel at said gripping stop position and for making said grippingmembers open at said empty vessel discharging position, therebydischarging the empty vessel towards said empty vessel carrying-outdevice.
 3. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according toclaim 2, wherein said main rotating member comprises a main rotatingshaft rotating intermittently in one direction every 180 degrees,wherein said rotating device further comprises a supporting shaftsupported by said main rotating shaft in parallel to said main rotatingshaft in an axial direction, and designed to be reciprocally rotatablearound an axis thereof between an initial position and a rotatedposition, wherein said contents-filling vessel reversing apparatusfurther comprises a supporting shaft rotating device for rotating saidsupporting shaft, and wherein said reversing stop position regulatingdevice regulates said rotated position of said supporting shaft, andsaid pair of gripping members are mounted on one end of said supportingshaft.
 4. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatus according toclaim 3, wherein said supporting shaft is formed to be hollow to have athrough hole, wherein said gripping member opening/closing devicecomprises a sliding shaft inserted through said through hole of saidsupporting shaft and being movable in an axial direction thereof, saidsliding shaft being connected at one end thereof to said grippingmembers, and wherein said gripping members are opened and closedinterlockingly with the axial direction movement of said sliding shaft.5. A contents-filing vessel reversing apparatus according to claim 3,wherein said supporting shaft rotating device is equipped with a groovedcam securely positioned with an axis thereof coinciding with the axis ofsaid main rotating shaft, a lever fixed to the other end of saidsupporting shaft and a cam roller mounted on the lever so as to roll inand move along a groove formed in said grooved cam, wherein, in apredetermined range in said groove extending in the opposite directionsfrom a position corresponding to said rotated position, at least aradius of curvature of an inner wall of said groove is made shorter thana radius of curvature of the the inner wall in a rest range in thegroove so that a width of the groove in said predetermined range islarger than a width of the groove in the rest range, and wherein saidreversal stop regulating device is provided with a positioning stopperwhich abuts against said lever to position the lever at said reversalstop position, and a stopper position regulating device for regulatingthe position of the stopper.
 6. A contents-filling vessel reversingapparatus according to claim 4, wherein said supporting shaft rotatingdevice is equipped with a grooved cam securely positioned with an axisthereof coinciding with the axis of said main rotating shaft, a leverfixed to the other end of said supporting shaft and a cam roller mountedon the lever so as to roll in and move along a groove formed in saidgrooved cam, wherein, in a predetermined range in said groove extendingin the opposite directions from a position corresponding to said rotatedposition, at least a radius of curvature of an inner wall of said grooveis made shorter than a radius of curvature of the the inner wall in arest range in the groove so that a width of the groove in saidpredetermined range is larger than a width of the groove in the restrange, and wherein said reversal stop regulating device is provided witha positioning stopper which abuts against said lever to position thelever at said reversal stop position, and a stopper position regulatingdevice for regulating the position of the stopper.
 7. A contents-fillingvessel reversing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein two saidsupporting shafts are provided symmetrically with respect to the axis ofsaid main rotating shaft, and each of said supporting shafts is providedwith said pair of gripping members.
 8. A contents-filling vesselreversing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein two said supportingshafts are provided symmetrically with respect to the axis of said mainrotating shaft, and each of said supporting shafts is provided with saidpair of gripping members.
 9. A contents-filling vessel reversingapparatus according to claim 5, wherein two said supporting shafts areprovided symmetrically with respect to the axis of said main rotatingshaft, and each of said supporting shafts is provided with said pair ofgripping members.
 10. A contents-filling vessel reversing apparatusaccording to claim 6, wherein two said supporting shafts are providedsymmetrically with respect to the axis of said main rotating shaft, andeach of said supporting shafts is provided with said pair of grippingmembers.